My original idea was to just do a top from a McCall’s pattern I have, but then I decided that no, I had enough fabric for a shirt dress – but let’s do it in as few pieces as possible – so tank-top with skirt it was. I don’t know how successful all that turned out. My alternate title for this was the “Home Ec” dress because my husband told me I looked a little like a school teacher, and to me it sort of looks like something a Home Ec teacher might wear only because it was made by one of her students. The more I see it, the more I like the skirt portion. The pleats are decent.

The cardigan was a UFO from last summer. I was apparently incredibly ambitious when I began sewing and wanted Jersey everything – not realizing how difficult it is to work with. I asked (and received) a walking foot for Christmas so that helped me to finish this project without too much frustration. I didn’t count the original time I put into this, in my “Time to Complete” stat.

Having learned how to use my automatic buttonholer when I first got my machine has been an asset in my short time sewing. The learning curve I wanted to get over was how to use it with stretchy fabrics. Using stabilizer is the key!! I forgot to use it on the first one so it turned out a little wonky, but the others look perfect! I might make another cardi and use grosgrain ribbon as a stabalizer and decorative element. The functional buttons on the dress are basically useless because it can get it on/off without having to undo any of them, but it was good practice.

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SullyLiz3

Liz has been sewing since April 2011 but has been crafty all her life. Her full-time job is as a museum curator at a smallish institution, where her DIY skills often come in handy. Liz likes to sew while watching TV, which she uses to measure the amount of time it takes to finish.

the cardi is great. I have so much knit fabric that I need to use (must learn how to first). If you like the skirt portion of your dress, drag out the scissors and seam ripper and you are set for the UFO challenge :-D

About the Sew Weekly

The Sew Weekly began as Mena Trott's attempt to document the process of sewing all of her own clothes in 2010. In 2011, four other contributors (Debi Fry, Adey Lim, Veronica Darling & Sarah Gabbart) joined her and for 52 weeks, they sewed based on a particular weekly theme. In 2012, The Sew Weekly became a much larger group blog with over 130 contributors sewing along each week.